Douglas Clifton Brown, 1st Viscount Ruffside explained

Honorific-Prefix:Colonel The Right Honourable
The Viscount Ruffside
Order1:Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
Term Start1:3 March 1943
Term End1:31 October 1951
Monarch1:George VI
Primeminister1:Winston Churchill
Clement Attlee
Predecessor1:Edward FitzRoy
Successor1:William Morrison
Office2:Member of Parliament
for Hexham
Term Start2:14 December 1918
Term End2:16 November 1923
Predecessor2:Richard Durning Holt
Successor2:Victor Finney
Term Start3:29 October 1924
Term End3:4 October 1951
Predecessor3:Victor Finney
Successor3:Rupert Speir
Nationality:British
Education:Eton College
Alma Mater:Trinity College, Cambridge
Parents:James Clifton Brown
Amelia Rowe Brown
Children:Audrey Clifton Brown
Relations:Howard Clifton Brown (brother)

Douglas Clifton Brown, 1st Viscount Ruffside, (16 August 1879 – 5 May 1958) was a British politician who represented the Conservative Party (UK). He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951. Upon stepping down as Speaker he became the Viscount Ruffside; the peerage became extinct with his death.

Early life

Clifton Brown was born on 16 August 1879. He was the fifth of ten children born to Amelia (née Rowe) Brown and Colonel James Clifton Brown, a Liberal Party Member of Parliament.[1] His maternal grandparents were Charles Rowe, who was mixed race, due to being of African descent, and his Lima-born wife Sarah.[2] [3] His elder brother was Howard Clifton Brown

His paternal grandparents were Alexander Brown and his wife Sarah Benedict Brown. His great-grandfather was the banker and merchant Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet, and his uncle was Liberal politician Sir Alexander Brown, 1st Baronet.

Clifton Brown was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Career

Clifton Brown was a lieutenant in the Lancashire Artillery when on 26 March 1902 he was commissioned a second-lieutenant in the 1st Dragoon Guards, serving in South Africa during the end of the Second Boer War. He advanced to major in the regiment, and later became a lieutenant-colonel in the Volunteer force.

Political career

Short Title:Mr. Speaker Clifton Brown's Retirement Act 1951
Type:Act
Parliament:Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long Title:An Act to settle and secure an annuity upon the Right Honourable Douglas Clifton Brown in consideration of his eminent services.
Year:1951
Citation:15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 2
Royal Assent:7 December 1951
Repealing Legislation:Statute Law Revision Act 1963
Status:repealed
Collapsed:yes

Clifton Brown was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Hexham from 1918 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1951.[4] He was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1938 to 1943 and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1941 and raised to the peerage as Viscount Ruffside, of Hexham in the County of Northumberland, in 1951. An act of Parliament, (15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 2), was passed to provide him with a pension as former Speaker.[5]

Personal life

In 1907, Ruffside was married to Violet Cicely Kathleen Wollaston (1882–1969), daughter of Frederick Eustace Arbuthnot Wollaston.[6] They were the parents of one child:

Ruffside died in May 1958, aged 78. As there were no surviving male issue from the marriage, the viscountcy became extinct. His widow, the Viscountess Ruffside, died in November 1969, aged 87.

Arms

Escutcheon:Gules a Chevron Or between two Bear's Paws erased in chief and four hands conjoined in saltire of the second in base on a Chief engrailed Or an Eagle displayed Sable
Notes:Lord Ruffside was an agnate of the Brown baronets of Richmond hill. His arms, as displayed in the speaker's chamber, are the same as those in the baronets' arms.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Craig, F. W. S. . F. W. S. Craig . British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 . 1977 . 2nd . 1989 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-26-4 . 155–156.
  2. Ulrich Muecke (ed.), The Diary of Heinrich Witt (Vol. 1, pp. 101, 156–157 and 190.)
  3. Alfonso W. Quiroz, Corrupt Circles: A History of Unbound Graft in Peru (pp. 105–106)
  4. Web site: leighrayment.com House of Commons: Hertford to Honiton . 20 September 2010 . usurped . https://web.archive.org/web/20120211101642/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Hcommons3.htm . 11 February 2012 .
  5. Mr. Speaker Clifton Brown's Retirement Act, 1951; Web site: Written Answers: Pensioners (Statistics) . Hansard . UK Parliament . 25 January 2021 . HC ser 5 vol 497 col 93W . y. 7 March 1952.
  6. Web site: d . https://web.archive.org/web/20070310221841/http://www.kittybrewster.com/members/d.htm . usurped . 10 March 2007 . Kittybrewster.com . 15 July 2010.
  7. News: Lady Hylton-Foster . 12 June 2019 . The Daily Telegraph. London . 5 November 2002.